Starlight’s Training Adventure!

[Skye'sDucks]

Whoa! Silly Star. Guess we all have bad mornings. Glad you worked it out, though! I hope she doesn't give you trouble in the future.

I don't know your training plan, and I certainly don't want to step on your toes or act like I know more than you (I mean, I don't even own a horse! I just take lessons), but these last two weeks I've been working on trail class things and I started to think how if it was possible to incorporate some of that into horse training from the ground.

And from that I mean desensitizing her and just overall having a well-rounded horse that can do all sorts of things. Like walking over a wooden board without a fuss, or opening a gate. In my case it's a rope tied between two poles that serves as the gate. (All that yielding hind quarter stuff!) And talking about yielding hind quarters, it'd be a good exercise I think, perhaps even on the ground, to get her to go in a 360 in a box without touching the ground poles, and without moving her front feet.

I don't know, my normal trainer has been out these last two weeks (but is back!) and the lady who's given me my lessons has been working with Vinny and me on trail course stuff. I really love it. And as I think about it, it's really a bunch of skills you can teach your horse, along with desensitizing to a lot of things.

I think no matter what discipline, those are good things to think about teaching your horse! But like I said, I have no idea if you've thought of doing this stuff, I was just throwing an idea out there. And yeah, a lot of that you do riding, but some of it I feel like you could do from the ground, lol.

 

[sassysarah]

Thanks for the tips! I haven’t done a lot of lunging yet as I am still teaching her to move her shoulder away from me. I have already taught her to move her hindquarters away from me so sometimes she gets a little confused with that. But it has been really useful to use whenever she spooks.

Okay! Glad she is doing good at yielding her hindquarters and that's great you're teaching her to move her shoulders away from you!☺

 

[Gallop4ever]

Thank you!!! It is really nice to hear that! Will definitely keep you updated!

Great!

 

[Cadence A Waller]

Whoa! Silly Star. Guess we all have bad mornings. Glad you worked it out, though! I hope she doesn't give you trouble in the future.

I don't know your training plan, and I certainly don't want to step on your toes or act like I know more than you (I mean, I don't even own a horse! I just take lessons), but these last two weeks I've been working on trail class things and I started to think how if it was possible to incorporate some of that into horse training from the ground.

And from that I mean desensitizing her and just overall having a well-rounded horse that can do all sorts of things. Like walking over a wooden board without a fuss, or opening a gate. In my case it's a rope tied between two poles that serves as the gate. (All that yielding hind quarter stuff!) And talking about yielding hind quarters, it'd be a good exercise I think, perhaps even on the ground, to get her to go in a 360 in a box without touching the ground poles, and without moving her front feet.

I don't know, my normal trainer has been out these last two weeks (but is back!) and the lady who's given me my lessons has been working with Vinny and me on trail course stuff. I really love it. And as I think about it, it's really a bunch of skills you can teach your horse, along with desensitizing to a lot of things.

I think no matter what discipline, those are good things to think about teaching your horse! But like I said, I have no idea if you've thought of doing this stuff, I was just throwing an idea out there. And yeah, a lot of that you do riding, but some of it I feel like you could do from the ground, lol.

Your not stepping on my toes at all! I love getting new ideas of things to work on and do with star! I really want her to be a well mannered and well rounded horse! And I completely agree with the idea of working on things from the ground. What I want to do is get star ready for being ridden, so if she has already done the stuff from the ground that I am asking her to do while I am riding then things will probably go much more smoothly.

 

[Cadence A Waller]

Star spooked down the hill again today...

 

[Cadence A Waller]

She did great yesterday but then today did not go well. I don’t want this to become a habit of her’s, so how would any of you go about preventing this from happening again?

 

[sassysarah]

What I want to do is get star ready for being ridden, so if she has already done the stuff from the ground that I am asking her to do while I am riding then things will probably go much more smoothly.

Yes, they definitely will!
Especially if you like teach her to trot and canter maybe like on the lunge line by your voice cues, I bet she would already have a good idea of what you want her to do when you ask for the trot and canter in the saddle.
You have been doing SUCH an AMAZING job with Star! Both of you keep up all the great work!!

 

[Cadence A Waller]

Yes, they definitely will!
Especially if you like teach her to trot and canter maybe like on the lunge line by your voice cues, I bet she would already have a good idea of what you want her to do when you ask for the trot and canter in the saddle.
You have been doing SUCH an AMAZING job with Star! Both of you keep up all the great work!!

Thank you... in the moment I don’t feel like I am doing great with her... but just have to remember she’s a baby.

 

[sassysarah]

Thank you... in the moment I don’t feel like I am doing great with her... but just have to remember she’s a baby.

You're welcome! And yes, don't forgot she's just a baby... She's still learning how she has to behave etc...
Everything will turn out fine! Don't worry! Just keep working on that hill with her.

Have you tried lunging her up it?

If she's in a hurry to get off the hill, and tries to bolt down it, maybe try to work her once she get's down the hill then lead her up it and give her a long rest!!! Keep taking her down the hill, then immediately start working her. Do some lunging, yielding her hindquarters etc. You have to make her think being on the hill is great! She gets to relax, be pet etc. Maybe she won't be in such a hurry to get down if she knows she's going to have to work once she gets down there.
Take her back up the hill give her a nice rest! If you keep doing this she will probably dread going down the hill and will walk down nice and slow.... It seems like now she's in a hurry to get down, correct? We can't MAKE horses do what we want, we have to make the horse think it's what they want.
I bet if you can get Star to love being on that hill and hate coming down she probably won't bolt down anymore. At least you can probably give it try.
I'm not guaranteeing it will work because I'm not actually sure why she's bolting down but, it's worth a try.
Good luck with, Star!
Can't wait to hear how she does tomorrow!

 

[Cadence A Waller]

You're welcome! And yes, don't forgot she's just a baby... She's still learning how she has to behave etc...
Everything will turn out fine! Don't worry! Just keep working on that hill with her.

Have you tried lunging her up it?

If she's in a hurry to get off the hill, and tries to bolt down it, maybe try to work her once she get's down the hill then lead her up it and give her a long rest!!! Keep taking her down the hill, then immediately start working her. Do some lunging, yielding her hindquarters etc. You have to make her think being on the hill is great! She gets to relax, be pet etc. Maybe she won't be in such a hurry to get down if she knows she's going to have to work once she gets down there.
Take her back up the hill give her a nice rest! If you keep doing this she will probably dread going down the hill and will walk down nice and slow.... It seems like now she's in a hurry to get down, correct? We can't MAKE horses do what we want, we have to make the horse think it's what they want.
I bet if you can get Star to love being on that hill and hate coming down she probably won't bolt down anymore. At least you can probably give it try.
I'm not guaranteeing it will work because I'm not actually sure why she's bolting down but, it's worth a try.
Good luck with, Star!
Can't wait to hear how she does tomorrow!

Thanks! That is a great idea! I will definitely try that tomorrow! The first time she bolted down was just her being spooky and rushing down the hill. But I think now star thinks that if she bolts down the hill she gets to eat more grass. Because whenever she bolts she runs down the hill and then just puts her head down and starts eating grass.
And now that you mention getting star to want to walk down the hill it kinda makes me think of how I taught Sugar to load into the trailer. I would walk into the trailer and if she didn’t walk in with me then I would lunge her for a little bit then try again. Eventually sugar realized that if she walked into the trailer she didn’t have to work.
I hope this works for star! Thank you!